Chen Jin was like a black hole, swallowing the surging golden mycelium as if a whale were drinking in the sea.
Everywhere he passed, the golden lingzhi mushrooms that had been growing wildly turned into streaks of light and streamed frantically into his body.
The soldiers, alchemists, and even the statue of the Lord of the Four Seasons, all of whom had been covered by mycelium and were on the verge of being transformed, were exposed once more. Though badly wounded, they had temporarily escaped being devoured by the mushrooms.
A vast blank area was rapidly expanding with Chen Jin at its center.
"Jiang Yan!" Chen Jin roared up at the enormous phantom in the sky, even as he frantically devoured the mushrooms' power. "As the Libationer of Jixia Academy and a role model to the people, why would you do something like this?!"
High above, Jiang Yan's phantom lowered his gaze slightly to look at Chen Jin, his eyes still calm and unreadable.
"Little friend, you really don't understand me..." With success within reach, he was in the mood to talk. "Do you know what 'the thief who steals a hook is executed, while the thief who steals a state becomes a lord' means?"
"Few people in this world still remember that Qi originally belonged to the Jiang clan."
"In days of old, my ancestor Taigong Wang wielded the Investiture of the Gods to establish order across the four seas, aided King Wu in overthrowing Zhou and founding a dynasty, and, when he was granted Qi Territory, personally ascended Mount Tai to enshrine the gods."
"The Eight Divine Lords of Qi Territory were the guardian deities my ancestor personally appointed." His voice sank, as if recalling the glory of days gone by. "My ancestor granted them divine offices and lands where they could receive offerings. He had the people of Qi Territory worship them year after year, helping them gather faith and cultivate great divine powers.
"In those days, the Eight Divine Lords swore to my ancestor that they would protect the Jiang clan's Qi from generation to generation and safeguard the people who lived on this land."
"But what happened in the end?" A chill abruptly crept into his voice. "That scoundrel Tian Chengzi used despicable means to whittle away at my clan's foundations, then murdered the ruler and usurped the throne. Guess what the Eight Divine Lords did?"
He gazed down at the scene of hell below, cold light flickering in his eyes. "Not only did they fail to honor their oath and protect the state, they secretly aided the Tian clan! On the day Tian Chengzi took the throne, the Eight Divine Lords personally sent down 'auspicious signs' to win the people's support and consolidate his rule. Do you know why?"
Before Chen Jin could answer, Jiang Yan laughed at himself. "Because, in their eyes, our Jiang clan was an ancient family that knew how to 'restrain divine authority.' The God-Striking Whip Technique passed down by my ancestor could keep their arrogance in check.
"But what about Tian Chengzi? A nouveau riche who seized power by murdering his ruler, he knew nothing about keeping the gods in check and was eager to use their authority to stabilize the throne he'd stolen. Wasn't a ruler like that easier for them to manipulate—and a more convenient source of offerings to enjoy as they pleased—than our Jiang clan?"
"Then punish the Eight Divine Lords. What does that have to do with us? What does it have to do with the ordinary people of Qi Territory?"
"They're innocent, so I shouldn't hurt them? That's how you understand what's right."
Jiang Yan spoke leisurely. "My own reasoning is this: the golden cores of gods, humans, emperors, and immortals can help me reach the pinnacle of this world. And since I have the power to refine them into golden cores, that's what I've done."
As he spoke, Chen Jin clearly felt the "furnace fire" rising from the earth beneath his feet grow hotter. The mushrooms around him were also mounting an increasingly fierce counterattack.
He had to intensify [Swallow Sun and Moon]. Fine beads of sweat appeared on his brow, and the burden of refining the mushrooms' medicinal power while resisting their corrosion rapidly increased.
"Little friend, you've eaten enough. Eleven, go help Chen refine his body."
As soon as he finished speaking, a figure moved stiffly out of the shadows at the edge of the battlefield, as if controlled by invisible strings.
It was the semi-puppet automaton, Eleven.
But the Eleven before him was nothing like the timid, servile figure from the academy. His face was twisted with pain and struggle. His spirit-stone prosthetic eye, glowing blue, fixed on Chen Jin with murderous intent, while his human eye brimmed with guilt.
"Eleven, get out of the way!" Chen Jin growled. He didn't want to fight this poor man.
But Jiang Yan's phantom in the sky merely glanced at him indifferently and flicked a finger.
A dark-red Seal of the Lord of War, condensed from pure baleful energy and shaped like a roaring beast's head, instantly slammed into Eleven's chest.
"Gaaah!!!"
Eleven let out a piercing howl that sounded nothing like a human voice.
A cacophony of mechanisms whirring wildly erupted from within him. The half of his body made of refined metal and spirit wood gave a grating series of cracks. Gears spun, connecting rods extended frantically, and layers of armor sprouted and overlapped.
"Splurt! Splurt!"
The flesh-like skin Chen Jin had carefully fashioned over him was as fragile as paper beneath the violent mechanical growth. It was easily torn apart and split open.
Beneath the ruptured membranes and flying scraps of muscle, metal and wood structures swelled at terrifying speed.
In an instant, a towering mechanical giant several zhang tall stood before Chen Jin, its baleful aura soaring.
Its entire body was made of dark bronze and twisted wood, while dark-red baleful energy of the Lord of War surged from its joints.
The part of Eleven's body that had once been "human" now looked insignificant against the massive mechanical frame. It was little more than a twitching lump of flesh hanging from the giant steel neck.
His blue prosthetic eye now burned like a will-o'-the-wisp. It took up nearly half of the remaining side of his head, filled with boundless murderous intent.
The enormous shadow swallowed Chen Jin. A gigantic bronze-and-wood foot came crashing down on him with enough force to crush everything!
Chen Jin had to divide his attention to deal with it. As he dodged to the side, [Sun Savior] and [Moon Savior] appeared in his hands. After several earthshaking booms, they achieved little.
—After Jiang Yan repaired [Symphony of Myriad Phenomena], it had lost its ability to fire armor-piercing rounds.
"Bang!"
The blast sent Chen Jin's blood and qi churning, forcing him to roll away.
He roared, "Jiang Yan! He's your adopted son! How could you do this to him?!"
"You said it yourself. He's an 'adopted' son."
People mistakenly believed that potter wasps didn't lay eggs and raised caterpillars as their own, so the word "brood parasite" came to mean an adopted child. Do you know why potter wasps raise caterpillars?
Chen Jin's expression instantly turned ghastly.
The potter wasp didn't capture a caterpillar to raise it. It carried it back to its nest, injected it with venom to paralyze it, then laid its eggs inside its body.
Once the eggs hatched, the larvae made their first meal of the still-living caterpillar.
"You... You only ever saw him as material for cultivating your technique?! Firewood for your furnace?!" Chen Jin's voice trembled with rage.
"Material? Firewood?" Jiang Yan's phantom seemed to shake his head slightly, as if mocking Chen Jin's shallow understanding. "No. He is the perfect 'vessel' for containing the baleful energy of the Lord of War, and the most crucial 'catalyst' for helping me complete the final step of 'Heaven and Earth as a Furnace.'"
As soon as he finished speaking, the mechanical giant's eyes were completely consumed by a violent scarlet glow. It let out a roar, utterly lost to reason, and once more unleashed a storm of attacks against Chen Jin with the force of an avalanche!